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Obama Sucks Up to the Rich Man
The wealthy are to be reviled, according to Obama’s rhetoric — except when it comes to his bank account and his social life.
President Barack Obama has more or less declared war on wealthy Americans with his proposed tax and spending plans. Daniel Henninger explains:
Mr. Obama made clear in the campaign his intention to raise taxes on this income class by letting the Bush tax cuts expire. What is becoming clearer as his presidency unfolds is that something deeper is underway here than merely using higher taxes to fund his policy goals in health, education, and energy.
The “top 1%” isn’t just going to pay for these policies. Many of them would assent to that. The rancorous language used to describe these taxpayers makes it clear that as a matter of public policy they will be made to “pay for” the fact of their wealth — no matter how many of them worked honestly and honorably to produce it. No Democratic president in 60 years has been this explicit.
So Obama has it in for the wealthy. Those of us who went beyond the gushing headlines during the campaign last year already knew that. It’s ironic, considering his income jumped from $991,296 in 2006 to $4.2 million in 2007 — but while you can move a man away from the breeding ground of his ideology, you can’t take the ideology out of the man. Plus you have to admit he sure looks snazzy in those expensive tailored suits.
What’s even more ironic is that as Obama continues to offer campaign-like platitudes in an effort to bolster his populist credentials, he’s busy boosting his credentials with the wealthy socialites in Washington:
Earlier this year, the Obama administration invited top editors of Washington’s three local luxury lifestyle magazines, Capitol File, DC Magazine, and Washington Life, to a meeting where, among other things, they discussed how the president and first lady can embrace Washington’s glittery social scene. …
A White House aide who spoke on condition of anonymity dismissed the notion that a publicly populist Obama White House is privately courting socialites, contending that the meeting was held to explore how the Obamas can “engage in the community.” The aide also pointed out that similar meetings were held with representatives of sports, entertainment, and philanthropic organizations in Washington.
Rich people are to be reviled, according to Obama’s rhetoric, except when it comes to his bank account and his social life. I think I get it now. That explains the Wednesday cocktail parties, Obama’s penchant for $100 per serving Wagyu steak, and cranking up the taxpayer-funded thermostat in the Oval Office — thus inspiring my newest nickname for him, Tropical Barry. In three delicious flavors: Marxist Berry Red, Eco-Fraud Green, and Kool Menthol.
As Mel Brooks memorably said, “It’s good to be the king.”
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Pam Meister is the editor for Family Security Matters and a contributor to Big Hollywood. Her work can also be seen at American Thinker. The views expressed here are her own.
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88 Comments
1. arhooley:We’ve looked back at numerous historic precedents as we’ve deplored the Obamas — Marie Antoinette and Louis, the Carters, the Clintons. Have we overlooked the Perons? Evita wore mink coats in a hot July in Paris. She wore her designer clothes, she said, on behalf of the descamisados, the shirtless ones. Michelle goes sleeveless in D.C. in February, on behalf of those who are shivering with cold. We’ll need a nickname.
Mar 13, 2009 - 11:56 pm 2. fear Obama:He better hurry-
The rich elites in Hollywood wont have anything left.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.947e1a922805936ddb8dec512a872cdb.311&show_article=1
Anyone want to buy a slightly used gold stud diamond Rolex?
Mar 14, 2009 - 12:45 am 3. Marc Malone:In a Communist society, the only rich are the party apparatchiks. Governmental power is the key to wealth, even if it is a shabby kind of wealth in comparison to the real thing that capitalism produces. But then, it’s not how rich you are. It’s whether you’re richer than everyone else. The heady tastes of power and superiority trump all.
Mar 14, 2009 - 1:00 am 4. Yes We Did:You racist hatemongers just can’t face reality, can you?
There was an election last November. We won, you lost, and you will never get another chance. President Obama rules this country now and will lead us into the light of a new world of justice and peace.
You will pay reparations for 400 years of slavery, oppression, and exploitation. You will pay your bill or we will take it from you. You have no other choice. Face reality: Your time has passed, never to return.
Praise OBAMA!
Mar 14, 2009 - 1:08 am 5. Delia:Dear Ms.Meister,
You hit it on the proverbial head. Zero hates Jews/Whites/Successful ANYONE with a PASSION and he wants to ram that home with his sickening socialist policies.
My husband and I would love to strive to be ‘rich’ but the taxation of the upper-middle-class makes that American dream a faded, slave Endeavour.
We were the upper middle [blue collar] class almost reaching the upper class until the real-estate collapse happened and then ‘kaboom!’ and we are still up to our knickers and keeping from drowning, thank GOD.
Where is the “rich man” to pay for the denigration of our future? I can’t even believe we’ve become SLUTS via China? What next? How effing WRONG do we have to go before we go off the rails?
I’m scared and this ‘admin’ is living large and telling us to ’sit back, Jack’…
I don’t think so, homey. -And, the cake is stale.
Mar 14, 2009 - 1:10 am 6. Delia:4. Yes We Did,
LOL! You brat! Sometimes I have to take a breather and realize you’re being a sarcastic bater for the sake of batin’. hehe.
Oddly…I’ve switched to organic ‘hemp’ clothing… he-he
Mar 14, 2009 - 2:04 am 7. john m e:misha and barry…neither troubadors nor catskill comics…just plain folks sacrificing for a better amerika.
Mar 14, 2009 - 2:06 am 8. carolb:I think this is one of the reasons why we’re now hearing Obama say things like the economy isn’t as bad as we (the public) think it is. People were starting to look at all the partying and saying, wait a minute, is this appropriate during the worse economic crisis since the Great Depression? Can you imagine what would have happened if McCain had won and Cindy had started throwing weekly parties right after moving in?
And, that picture of Michelle and Oprah on the cover of Oprah’s magazine? It’s a horrible picture of them both.
Mar 14, 2009 - 3:23 am 9. misanthropicus:Snowball and Napoleon, upward-ho! part “n” – the Obama-s remind the communist revolutionaries in the Eastern European countries who, after vilifying and re-possesing the previous elite’s properties, moved in the mansion, adopted the manners and prejudices, marrying only aristocrats, etc.
Mar 14, 2009 - 5:29 am 10. Meryl:Changenhope: another name for this is “arriviste” – and since here, Moliere would have some nice things to say about them.
Again, the usefulness of the word “shameless” comes to mind.
Shameless.
Ignorant.
Arrogant.
Dangerous.
Mar 14, 2009 - 5:54 am 11. COL.SEBASTIAN MORAN:YES WE DID
Mar 14, 2009 - 6:08 am 12. jdflorida:#4
YOU POOR, STUPID,BLIND BOOB-YOU MORONS ELECTED AN EMPTY SUIT – A UNREGENERATE, MUSLIM USURPER. REPERATIONS FOR WHAT ?- WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU PICKED A BALE OF COTTON. WHEN ARE “YOU PEOPLE” GOING TO CUT OUT THIS PICKANINNY REPERATIONS CRAP ? THOSE OF US WITH A SCINTILLA OF INTELLECT REALIZE THAT THE CIVIL WAR ENDED IN 1865. YOU ARE DUE NO REPARATIONS ! PERHAPS YOU’D BEST LISTEN TO SOME OF THE ADVICE BEING GIVEN BY BILL COSBY. ONLY YOU CAN HELP YOURSELVES – GET UP OFF YOUR BUTTS, GET SOME HONEST WORK AND MAKE SOMETING OF YOURSELVES. WE’RE SICK OF HEARING YOU WHINE….
S.M.
Just another dictator wannabe who spews socialist platitudes while living high on the proverbial hog. Dim-witted Obama and his idiot wife are enjoying the perks and fame from his campaigning awesome-ness. He’s so “inspiring”.
Mar 14, 2009 - 6:11 am 13. COL.SEBASTIAN MORAN:YES WE DID
Mar 14, 2009 - 6:13 am 14. Camp Crystal Lake:#4
TAKE IT FROM US ? OBUMA RULES ? JUST WHERE IN HELL DID YOUR PEA BRAIN COME UP WITH THIS – FACE IT – DESPITE ALL THE “EQUAL OPPORTUNITY” HORSESH## – YOU ARE NOW, AND ALWAYS WILL BE, A MINORITY. MAKE NO MISTAKE – OUR TIME HAS HARDLY PASSED.
SCREW OBAMA !
It all reeks of a cheap Machiavellian remake of “Friday the 13th” Jason has apparently found his way home again, sans that silly ol’ hockey mask.
Another take on “what’s behind the mask”
http://smokebreak.blogshevik.com/2009/03/13/daddy-dearest/
Mar 14, 2009 - 6:22 am 15. Gary Ogletree:To Yes We Did: Right on. I’m a big fan of reparations. The Federal government confiscated my ancestors’ legal property when Uncle Billy Sherman made war on the civilians of Georgia. Let me add my thanks to Sen. John Conyers, and to my distant cousin, Prof. Charles Ogletree of Harvard. I’m sending Chuck a $5 bill in appreciation. And a special shout out to Red China for making these reparations possible.
Mar 14, 2009 - 6:50 am 16. Mike Blackadder:carolb, good point. It is true that Obama is a rich man. I don’t necessarily think that this makes him a hypocrite. However, we should expect that in times of economic hardship when Americans must tighten their belts that the government should do the same. Any rational organization when faced with financial trouble will explore new opportunities, but also cut costs. Of course both of these things are accomplished by reducing the size of government and cutting taxes. Obama’s reaction to increase the size of government and spend on new entitlements (effectively buying votes) is hypocritical. The behavior of this administration is a perfect example of the irresponsible fiscal behavior that got us into this mess.
Mar 14, 2009 - 6:56 am 17. COL.SEBASTIAN MORAN:I SINCERELY HOPE AND PRAY THAT 32 STATES COME TOGETHER TO CALL A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION AND GET THIS USURPER OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE WHILE OUR BELOVED DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC STILL EXISTS ……….LINCOLN MUST BE IN TEARS !
Mar 14, 2009 - 7:00 am 18. Judith L:Michelle Antoinette and Cool Louie
Mar 14, 2009 - 7:11 am 19. Historical perspective:Let’s make this clear – Obama is not going after the ‘wealthy’. He is going after those who want to be wealthy. All of his talk is about raising income taxes. Income is one component of wealth. He is not talking about taking away the billions of dollars that Warren Buffett has accumulated even though Warren doesn’t think he is paying enough in taxes. Instead Obama is only going to tax at higher rates Warren’s income in excess of $250,000 and his dividends paid to him on his holdings. However, Obama and the rest of his socialist supporters in Congress are not interested in asking why Warren deserves to hold $36 billion in assets (I believe that is what he is currently worth even after the stock market meltdown). The primary reason that this question is being asked because one would have to ask the same question about Ted Kennedy’s wealth, and Herb Kohl’s and George Soros, and all of the other truly wealthy ’socialist’ that support Obama and his cause. So let’s stop calling people or families who earn $250,000 a year wealthy. In a relative sense they may be – but then in a relative sense nearly every American is wealthy compared to Obama’s half brother in Kenya.
Mar 14, 2009 - 7:32 am 20. Spinoneone:TO YES WE DID: While you may have meant this is jest, I would cordially invite you to take your U.S. passport, burn it, and return to the land of your ancestors. There you will find relatives who, for the past 200 years, have been poor subsistence farmers and who, today, live in a shack. Want to join them? Be my guest. Otherwise, give heartfelt thanks to the Arab slave trader who bought your distant relations and shipped them to the U.S. Don’t forget, while you dream of reparations, that black Americans are about 12% of the population; Hispanics are about 13%, and the Asian population is growing faster than the black. Not only are you no longer “top dog” in the “minority” mix, you are loosing ground.
Mar 14, 2009 - 7:37 am 21. keithacita:beware mult-millionaire communists in business suits
Mar 14, 2009 - 8:13 am 22. Chuck Pelto:TO: All
RE: Actually….
….I suspect the ‘rich’ are trying to buy off the impending disaster to their wealth.
How?
Bribery. They’re opting in as the future ‘commissars’ in this ‘new order’. Therefore, being part of the ’system’ they’ll be entitled to the wealth they’ve accumulated over the years. As long as they ‘toe-the-line’.
So….
…..who gets to have their wealth ‘redistributed’, if the rich who buy into the new order are exempt?
Three guesses. First two don’t count…..
…yes….the latter-day kulaks of the middle class.
And this correlates well with what happened in Russia after the Soviet regime was established. within 10 years the middle class had been ‘liquidated’. And those who resisted were sent off to be ‘re-educated’. Funny how few, if any, of the 1.3 million kulaks then returned to society.
This also correlates well with Ayers—Obama’s political science mentor—described what needed to be done with those unwilling to accept the new order: ‘re-education’ camps.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
P.S. I’m confident that Hitler used Stalin’s early 1930s ‘re-education’ camps as inspiration for his ‘Final Solution’ to the Jewish Problem in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
[History repeats itself. Especially if it was 'successful'.]
Mar 14, 2009 - 8:33 am 23. Chuck Pelto:TO: COL.SEBASTIAN MORAN
RE: It….
“I SINCERELY HOPE AND PRAY THAT 32 STATES COME TOGETHER TO CALL A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION….” — COL.SEBASTIAN MORAN
…doesn’t take a Constitutional Convention to do what you wish.
It takes either an honest and courageous Supreme Court or the will of the people.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Mar 14, 2009 - 8:40 am 24. TexEd:[Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving the Constitution of the United States as our fathers made it inviolate. The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. -- Abraham Lincoln]
Pam, Mugabe Obama isn’t out to destroy the rich! His object and the objective of the pimps he works for, is to destroy the middle class in America.
Mar 14, 2009 - 8:41 am 25. Teleprompter Jesus:“Tax the rich” is simply the phrase that Obama uses because he knows that the media will NEVER question what he means. The media assumes he means the evil Madofs of the country without without ever asking about the movie actors, plaintiffs’ attorneys, union officers, senior big city politicians (and Daschle types) or black athletes.
Obama is a lazy three card monte dealer who, once he sells the concept of taxing the rich, thinks he’ll have an easier shot at taxing the not-so-rich.
My friends aren’t rich, they’re pillars of the community. The rich who aren’t paying their fair share are those rich people over there with names that start with like gold, and end with like berg, and stein.
Those ones. They’re the rich. Unless they made contributions to my campaign. Then they’re not rich.
Mar 14, 2009 - 8:46 am 26. fred:You have to realize that Marxists believe that the nomenklatura deserve their perquesites! Objectively study every socialist country and experiment. The Party apparatchiks do have more money, have their dachas, and get to hobnob with all the movers and shakers in both the socialist and non-socialist world.
For Comrade Obama some comrades are more equal than others.
Mar 14, 2009 - 8:50 am 27. mshatto:#19 Historical Perspective – Excellent point. “That One” does not hate the wealthy, he is wealthy. Obama hates the bourgeoisie, the middle class that have always formed the heart and soul of the United States. The wealthy have the connections and ability to game the system and to benefit from Obama’s radical transformation of our nation. Look no farther than the recent rape of our financial system with TARP and the stimulas bill. It surely wasn’t the middle class who benefitted and most of those pocketing the untold of monies definitely swing left. Obama’s America is a mixture of Marxist, grievance ideology with Mussolini’s corporatist economy. The large corporations and well connected will get the stimulas monies, ex. the Goreical’s carbon credit scheme, T.Bone Pickett’s wind farms (notice these wind farms aren’t going to be off of Cape Cod afterall are they?), or the untold trillions that have gone into the accounts of Goldman Sach’s officers, most who are now registered Democrats, while the middle class will be told to take a pay cut or sign up for government handouts. The other group who will profit wil the race hustlers and rabble rousers who can whip the uneducated poor(the Green Shirts) into rabid, spittle flying demonstrations and yet never improve their lives, always laying the blame at the feet of “the man”, also known as the white middle class. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss” because this revolutionary blueprint has been going off for centuries, only with slight changes from nation to nation or between eras. There were plenty of wealthy elites who supported the Bolsheviks, Hitler, and Mussolini and in the end profited one way or the other. No, Obama loves the wealthy, he hates you and me.
Mar 14, 2009 - 9:17 am 28. one of my own:5 Delia . . . “Zero hates Jews/Whites/Successful ANYONE with a PASSION”
Who do you hate, Delia (besides me of course)? Who do you REALLY hate with a PASSION?
Mar 14, 2009 - 9:21 am 29. one of my own:15 Ogretree . . . Georgia, eh? Uh-huh.
Mar 14, 2009 - 9:23 am 30. one of my own:20 spinoneone . . . ” . . . give heartfelt thanks to the Arab slave trader who bought your distant relations and shipped them to the U.S.”
Wow, a latter-day saint yearns for the good life aboard the Amistad. Mr. Spinny, I think you’d do well on a slave ship . . . on deck of course, not down in the hold for months at a time lying next to the rotting corpse of your father.
YOU are exactly why the Right/Republicans/conservatives are being shoved to the back of the bus. Keep it up, and we’re gonna push you right out the back door and leave you crumpled in the road.
Mar 14, 2009 - 9:28 am 31. fear Obama:California teachers pissed because of mass firings.
Voted for Hopenchange.
YES WE CAN!
Yeah!- U- Did!
Not that I want to see someone lose their jobs.
But if the Hopenchanger spends your tax money for Hairy Greeds pet projects-
No money for school teachers.
Mar 14, 2009 - 9:31 am 32. mk:It’s good to see that the lefty trolls are displaying the unity, hope, and change that Teleprompter Jesus promised. Way to respect other people’s opinions and have an open mind, y’all!!
Mar 14, 2009 - 10:25 am 33. mshatto:#31 – fear Obama
Not all teachers are opposed to the layoffs, only one’s not smart enough to understand economics or who blindly folow the neo-marxist, radical union leaders of the CTA. Also I definitely didn’t vote for Obama, or Barbara Boxer, or Diane Feinstein.
More teachers = more union dues=bigger salary for CTA leaders
Less teachers = no pay cut for those who have jobs=happier, harder working teachers. I can handle more students, I can’t handle much of a pay cut.
That is a point never discussed by the union but also not discussed by conservatives. We, the public can’t have it both ways. Teachers can not demand increased pay and benefits and the public can’t demand lower class sizes, more spending, but lower taxes.
I am a California teacher but I’m also a capitalist. I’m in my 10th year of teaching, hold a masters degree, coach, run a tutoring program, club advisor, etc., etc, and am struggling to support my family. Teaching is a great second income, but I’m not a second income salary. I’m the primary bread winner and that decision was made so we could raise our daughter, not someone down the street we barely know. I bust my ass and want to be paid accordingly. Merit pay is the answer but it needs to provide opportunity to truly increase salary and needs to have clear goals and targets. Conservatives who always bemoan teachers and public education are really missing the point. There are plenty of good, caring teachers and some problemed ones. Vouchers, school choice, even for athletic reasons, merit pay, a tweaking of the tenure system and less categorical spending would do wonders for the public school and those students and parents who truly care. Also limit litigtion and provide administrators with greater leeway in getting rid of problem students and we might see this ship turn around. Otherwise we’re just throwing money down the drain but that’s what our political leaders do best.
Mar 14, 2009 - 10:28 am 34. John Galt:Plus you have to admit he sure looks snazzy in those expensive tailored suits.>>
==========
Mar 14, 2009 - 10:29 am 35. Chemman:Sorry buddy to people who look beyond the outerwear when viewing a person Hussein looks like a Marxist no matter what he is wearing.
Yes we Did:
Mar 14, 2009 - 10:34 am 36. Jilly:This isn’t Rhodesia where people will stand by and let that type of crap happen. Guns and ammunition are not flying off the store shelves for nothing. We understand that people like you mean what you say. You are welcome to try and take what I have away from me, but you better carry a bigger stick than I do which is something I highly doubt.
Communist dictators always get rich on the backs of the poor they’re supposedly championing. Just look at Fidel, he’s rich and “his people” are still poor.
Mar 14, 2009 - 10:37 am 37. Marc Malone:Speaking of shcools, here in Washington State, they’re closing some down this Summer, and they’re talking about moving to a 4-day school week to cut costs. Brilliant.
Four years ago, Christine Gregoire literally stole the election for Governor. At the time we had a pretty hefty surplus. Within a few months, she spent it all on stupid programs, and then continued to spend us into debt, to the tune of $3.2B. Now, with the economy in the toilet, they wish they had that surplus, or just no debt. This all happened when we had a strong economy here in our State.
So, what to do, what to do? Oh, let’s close schools and shorten the school week. By the way, the taxes aren’t going down at the same time, either.
Mar 14, 2009 - 10:40 am 38. LynnS:You know, I always thought Clinton was a divider and I also think Obama is a divider. I don’t know if it is a Democrat thing or just the kind of person who is popular with Democrats today, and with the election results, independents and maybe disillusioned Republicans. Perhaps because Obama took a cut in pay with his new job he thinks everyone else should too, but when it’s figured out what his perks are worth he is probably doing OK.
Why supposedly 5% of the population get a tax hike and so-called 95% don’t seems an odd way to explain a tax hike. Kind of dumping on a minority. Now if 5% of the population doesn’t pay enough taxes for the services they receive than the tax code should be changed, but they should have to prove that the tax burdon is not distributed fairly.
And I wondered if $250,000 included small to medium business owners too, because that doesn’t seem like a very big salary for that person. Before my tax and income ignorance shows too much I will quit.
Mar 14, 2009 - 10:40 am 39. Delia:28. one of my own:
“Who do you hate, Delia (besides me of course)? Who do you REALLY hate with a PASSION?”
~
I don’t hate you, silly boy/girl [too much wasted energy]. The only thing I truly hate is EVIL for EVIL’s sake. Who do I greatly DISLIKE? I’d need to be on a couch hooked up to sodium pentathol to answer that. LMAO!
BTW, I know some of you Libs have painted me a ‘racist’ because I point out your OWN racism but guess what? Two of my best friends growing up were not of my ethnicity: One was a black boy [Phil] and the other was an Asian girl [Mong]. I also befriended a big, strapping black girl named Michelle [of all things]. LOL! I had white friends too. You see, I was one of those fools who grew up not wanting to see color and hated racism with a passion.
-And, then I grew up and realized even though white people were ready to give up racism…blacks and hispanics were not. They even have websites dedicated to ‘breeding whitey out’… Boy oh boy did my blue eyes OPEN UP.
Mr. & Mrs. RACIST are now YOUR president and First Lady.
Thanks a lot for moving us backwards.
-Delia
Mar 14, 2009 - 10:47 am 40. Teleprompter Jesus:It is easier for a rich man to pass into my administration than an honest man.
Render unto Nancy what is Nancy’s, and render unto Harry what is Harry’s, and render unto me what is mine. And if there’s nothing left, ask unto your lard -er- Lord, and thou shall be filled, for I shall multiply the bacon and ham.
Mar 14, 2009 - 10:59 am 41. Delia:40. Teleprompter Jesus,
Rachel Peepers is thatchoo? LOL! You’re keelink’ me with laughter, dahlink!
*Falls off chair laffin’*
Mar 14, 2009 - 11:19 am 42. Tristan Yates:Good article. FYI there is a good article in the NYT about corruption in China and luxury retailers in New York. It’s about how at this time of year, just before the communist party meetings, Chinese officials and entrepreneurs come to New York to buy extravagant gifts, mostly luxury branded items that they will give away to win political favors.
When government officials and the wealthy start hanging around together, I don’t think its just because the politicians want to hang out with the rich and famous. There’s an agenda there. In our current environment, taxes and regulations are going up, but there will still be some industries and businesses that get tax breaks, subsidies, special contracts, etc. At the same time, the political machines need cash in order to run campaigns, make deals, etc. And the politicians themselves want to feather their own nests. So unfortunately, I believe this goes way beyond a search for social status and is just part of a culture of corruption.
What’s fascinating about the US as compared to other countries is that at the lower levels there is a complete lack of corruption – you would never think of giving a police officer $100 to get out of a ticket or a judge $5,000 to help you deal with a civil matter, even though that would be common in many countries. But at the top, “pay-for-play” is essentially institutionalized and considered normal.
Mar 14, 2009 - 11:52 am 43. Wancow:I miss Robin Leach too! Maybe we can set him up with a new show:
Lifestyles of the More Equal than Others…
Mar 14, 2009 - 1:04 pm 44. renegadetalk:Take a look at our views on the Obama & our government!
Mar 14, 2009 - 2:15 pm 45. AThinkingPerson:I’m thinking “one of my own” needs to get out a bit. I’m thinking either he’s pissed because he wallpapered his dorm room in Obama bumper stickers and is pissed because he can’t get them off before spring break OR he’s in a maximum security prison using the general population computer in the law library. Either way he’s a pathetic waste of oxygen. Reparations be damned. If you want payback let me know you’re home address and I’ll fork out for a ticket back to Africa where you can live it up back in the motherland. American has no use for haters like you. We’ve already got enough in Congress and the White House.
Mar 14, 2009 - 2:28 pm 46. Jeff:The rich that Obama runs around with have so much wealth it won’t matter if he takes 50% of it. Seriously, when you have 100M in a trust fund, and he taxes you -do you really care. I am wealthy, made it myself. But I am not wealthy enough to be a Democrat. When you are wealthy enough to be a Democrat, you can dictate to how the great unwashed should live. They are just trying to keep more people from climbing the ranks. Very tough to get a parking spot and decent service at Hermes if there are too many wealthy people around.
Mar 14, 2009 - 2:43 pm 47. fireyourguns:“yes we can leech” and “one dummy that keeps getting owned” = production line automaton’s in the Obot factory of entitlement! Or as the late, great “Robbie the Robot”(RIP)might say, with arms swinging wildly: “Danger Will Robinson, liberals approaching”!
Mar 14, 2009 - 2:46 pm 48. David W. Lincoln:Since when has credibility or consistency been part of the Obama lexicon?
Mar 14, 2009 - 2:53 pm 49. Delia:46. Jeff,
Very true. Look at Oprah…she has more wealth than she could spend in her own lifetime as it is so why should she care about taxation of her wealth? -But, when the middle classes get taxed it impinges on any chance to get ahead or even RETIRE one day or take a vacation! My husband and I have had one lousy vacation in our 22 years of marriage. Why? We lived frugally and saved and kept putting our money into savings or back into our business so that we could grow and prosper. -But, what good is prospering if it’s all going to be for naught?
Life under the ZERO admin means ZERO for all but the wealthiest. The rest of us fools can SUFFA! YIPEE!
Mar 14, 2009 - 3:59 pm 50. play OBama:to be honest if you look at this nation’s history of taxing. in the past the rich had paid a whole lot more in taxes then they do know.
currently the top tax rate is 30 something percent. but before the 80’s it was as high as 60%, 70% and even 90%!
Mar 14, 2009 - 4:28 pm 51. D Foster:I keep asking the same question, what were these Elite left liberals,( code for Ultra Wealthly) thinking, Warren Buffett, Jim Cramer, Jack Welsch, Barton Biggs, Lehman Brothers Exec’s, J P Morgan Exec’s. all supposed to be “Smart” and Business Savvy. They all gave Obama Millions toward this election.
Mar 14, 2009 - 4:51 pm 52. Moogie:Obama and his cronies of people that have never worked in the Private Business or Investment Banking, are going to do what every Bank Robber Knows, Tax the Rich and High Income Earner, because that is where the Money is,
With their plan on Cap and Trade, we will see a excessive Tax on Business and Investors, plus Individuals. Every sector of the economy will see increase cost and pricing. Obama, just surpass Jimmy Carter StagFlation of 18% in a few years.
But until the Elite Left and Media wake up and see the damage Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Durbin and Biden could do to this country, the Media will continue to support the Liberal Position, and the average voter will continue to think there is a free lunch.
#37 Marc Malone: Washington stater here. I’ll tell you what Chrissy will do… she’ll borrow against our state retirement system (of which I am a contributor via spouse) and “hope” the state can pay it back without causing the same kind of damage to it that has been done to Social Security. Total agreement on the stolen election. Best one out of three counts? WTF.
Mar 14, 2009 - 5:36 pm 53. fred:I am beginning to realize that the super wealthy don’t like competition in their industries, and so they have figured out a way to keep ambitious strivers from small companies from being too competitive, or being in business at all. This is exactly what the French government does. It decides, via graft, subsidies, and the tax code, who is going to win and who is going to lose.
This alliance of the super wealthy and the socialist agenda of Obonga is a match made in their kind of heaven.
Mar 14, 2009 - 6:54 pm 54. Alana:They’re stealing all our money. And our kids’, too.
No one with a smidgeon of common sense could possibly agree with wild spending of trillions of dollars we don’t even have. Nobody who ever had a job could possibly think that the way to prosperity was to borrow and spend with abandon.
One congress person (or maybe it was a governer) actually said, “That’s okay, our grandkids will pay it back.”
This tax-the-rich thing (as if 250k were rich)won’t last long. Soon it will not only be cap and trade ruining all of us, but it will also be tax increases for the middle class, too.
In any case, they won’t be happy until the middle class is destroyed.
Mar 14, 2009 - 8:04 pm 55. Meryl:I think that one of their planned “unintended consequences” is simply to depress the standard of living in the United States.
These are not people who EVER enjoy anyone else’s achievements or improvements. They are interested only in creating victims and destroying producers.
I can guarantee you that when the flood of tax punishments begins hitting hubby and I, we will do whatever we have to that will result in minimal taxes from us. We will NOT support this piece of crap either directly or indirectly.
What escapes them is that every day folks like ourselves are actually not dependent on a “certain level of living” to have a good life. We won’t become victims even if they take everything.
Just reading a travelogue copyrighted 1987 of what China looked like (and how its population’s functioning was depressed) after the Cultural Revolution. Couldn’t help but see the parallels.
These people do not have a CLUE as to the hatred and scorn that will be flowing their way for YEARS…in direct proportion to the degree of their “success”. It’s going to give “passive aggression” a whole new reference point.
Here’s how one Chinese man who had participated in the Cultural Revolution described his and his peers’ activities:
“If our leaders said, ‘He’s a reactionary! Beat him!’, we beat him. We didn’t know–we didn’t ask–why this or that man was bad. People said hit him, so you hit him. It was simple. It wasn’t even personal.’” (Behind the Wall, by Colin Thubron)
This is the kind of “thinking” that is reflected in the stupidity of posters such as Yes We Did. Most of these clueless idiots making these posts haven’t read a book since they dropped out of 8th grade, unless it was Cliff’s Notes for something by Bill Ayers.
Mar 14, 2009 - 9:01 pm 56. Judy, NYC:the guy is a fake. he was a fake from the start and easy to spot. this is the result. leftists are not liberals, and have nothing to do with liberal philosophy or politics or the old new york jewish socialists, now sadly gone. leftists are scum revolutionaries, loathe democracy and they’ve taken the white house just as hitler did the reichstag and pol pot the souls of cambodia. this terror is our burden and our responsibility. if we don’t fight we certainly can’t win. you have to be in it, as it is said, to win it.
Mar 14, 2009 - 9:29 pm 57. Rachel Peepers:Miss Delia, I see, continues to use words like great rock guitarists bend strings to flavor her language in ways that make you wanna read more.
Moreover, if you met her in the flesh, you’d quickly realize that she could go head to head with any pop talk TV show liberal, zeroBama brown noser and clean his or her ratings clock. From Bill Maher to Phil Donohue to Whoppie Goldberg.
Or even Jon Leibowitz, ( I think his islamo facist psyhchophants know him by his assumed named, Stewart).
Why he changed it?
Well, I believe that, according to a Lawrenceville, New Jersey, newspaper story dated June 12, 1979, he was at home one day ranting in between video games about how Israel should get their asses out of Palestine or the West bank or such, and, when his father told him to lower the decibles on the Jew hate speech, jovial Jon told his good old dad to take the family Leibowitz name and “shove it where the sun don’t shine.”
As the story goes, Jon wrote a letter to the editor how the older generation didn’t get it anymore.
For good measure, Stewart quipped (He graduated from Lawrence High School third in his class[15] and was voted “Best Sense of Humor.”[16]) that the Israeli wrestlers were dealt with in such a heavy handed way at the 1972 Munich Olympics because Israel was constantly overstepping its bounds in world affairs.
Of course, Jew hating is nothing new. Hitler pretty much in the 30’s and 40’s cornered the market on it, using every out of left field argument to duhumanize and demean them before he gassed them, figuratively not that much unlike what Jewless Jon did to Jim Cramer when Cramer appeared on Stewart’s Today’s “Hate Target de jour ” show recently. Of course, it wasn’t gas pellets Stewart dropped on Cramer, just hot air. And a level of mocking that makes any red blooded American want to punch the 5′7″ gunophobe pimsqueak right in his blame-America-first nose.
Yet, one can’t deny that a lot of American socialists thoroughtly enjoyed the Stewart mockathan.
Barack Obama, for one, loved it, saying to Robert Gibbs, his press secretary, how much he enjoyed seeing the clips of Stewart making Cramer appear to be some lying, tax cheat idiot, money stealing snake oil saleman, very much like the type of miscreants Barack keeps putting in his corrupt administration.
And, of course, Stewart (Liebowitz, whichever appellation you prefer) attacked Cramer in the first place because Cramer questioned Obama’s hiring of those aforementioned tax cheats, individuals versed on the politics of personal destruction, (ralm immanuel) and former journalists ( I use the term lightly) who’ve gone formally to work for Obama, having carried his water the whole length of the Presidential election. Not to mention the fact that they’re economically clueless, leading this country down a road that mortgages our children’s future. Which bothers Cramer, but doesn’t seem to bother Jon Stewart at all.
When you think about it, Jon Stewart is simply another in a long list of Bush hating, Barack cheering nimrods who have enough people thinking they’re funny to make a living demonstrating to the world that hate speech has a lighter side.
In case you haven’t heard what the Stewart turd said the day after 9/11, let me share this knee slapper with you. It’s the kind of joke that makes you sorry Cramer didn’t slap the gay Stewart blade silly.
With the twin towers destroyed, Stewart’s monologue that day was, to my best word for word memory, “Personally I like to look at 9/11 from the bright side, now when I look north, I see the Statue of Liberty, not all those filthy capitalist windows.
Memo to Jon.
3,000 mothers and fathers didn’t come home to hug their kids the evening of 9/11. And wouldn’t ever again. It’s the sort of thing that apparently kind of tickles the funnyman’s funnybone.
On the other hand, to some, I guess maybe Stewart did make a funny joke. I’m sure Osama and Obama both had a good belly laugh.
Personally, I guess I don’t have that kind of sense of humor. I have trouble separating the need to be funny from the need to send a piece of hot American lead through the conspiratorial terrorists’ numskulls.
But, hey, that’s just me, Rachel, your average everyday, blue eyed college Freshman.
Reading this I guess you get the feeling I have no respect for Jon Stewart or his TV station: Communist, I mean Comedy Central.
Sure, I know there are others like Bill Maher who say they have trouble deciding who the real terrorists are.
I hear Barack’s Attorney General verbally tongue lashing mantra that America is a nation of cowards.
I realize even President Obama from time to time accuses the American military of air raiding villages and killing innocent women and children. And know Michelle says America is a mean country.
And if America is as bad as they say, maybe Rachel’s the one on the wrong side of freedom’s fence.
But, to me, it ain’t easy separating those Stewart “cracks about the twin towers and their filthy capitalist windows being on the ground where they belong from just a bad joke;
It’s not easy separating Jeramy Wright’s post 9/11 rant that the chickens have come home to roost while President Obama sits in his third row aisle seat and shouts with the group, “Hallelujah brother Jeremy” from an overzealous pastor.
And separating John Murtha’s charge that Marines in Iraq have murdered women and children, a charge later proven false in a court martial, from a truth telling congressman is, well, it’s very difficult for me.
To tell you the truth, when it comes to all those creatures, I can’t help but believe they’re out to do America dirt.
Separating Jon Stewart and the rest of his breed from sharp witted honest talk is, well, it’s like trying to separate Stewart from shinola.
To me, Jon Stewart or Liebowitz or whatever he calls himself these days is a real piece of work.
Mar 14, 2009 - 10:07 pm 58. Delia:56. Rachel Peepers,
Oh pishaw. *blush* Would you cut that flattering stuff out already?! People will talk! *giggle*
BTW, you never replied to my last email? You know why I had to delete the one account? Right? Here’s my prophylactic account again should you wish to contact me: giada024-t@yahoo.com.au
-But, if your husband doesn’t like you yakkin’ too much with lil’ Delia I understand. I can be annoying at times.
“To tell you the truth, when it comes to all those creatures, I can’t help but believe they’re out to do America dirt.”
~
*Sigh*…INDEED
Mar 15, 2009 - 1:57 am 59. James:Spinoneone, despite your gratuitous swipe at Arab slave traders, the ancestors of today’s black Americans were brought here by American (and European) traders–not by Arabs or anyone else. Our nation doesn’t need to wallow in its past, but it can’t pass off the responsibility onto anyone else.
Mar 15, 2009 - 5:59 am 60. Chuck Pelto:TO: James
RE: [OT] Poor English Skills?
I do believe there is a difference between the words “shipped”, as used by Spinoneone, and “brought”, as used by you.
Maybe you should get a good dictionary and look them up.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[A little ambiguity never hurt anyone. -- Deputy Directory of English Teachers Assoc.]
P.S. Except maybe for James.
Mar 15, 2009 - 6:47 am 61. Marie Claude:Fred, not quit, before the nowadays crisis, it wasn’t the case, but the globalisation made that small companies were swallowed by the biggests, and thus killed concurrence
Mar 15, 2009 - 7:34 am 62. mountainaires:“They’ll try to bamboozle ya, hoodwink you. heh,heh,heh.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuB_W8o_UsU
Mar 15, 2009 - 9:42 am 63. TomF:So by the way, what is Obama’s current “pay grade?”
Mar 15, 2009 - 10:13 am 64. James:Chuck Pelto, you’re right that there’s a difference between the words “brought” and “shipped.” The distinction just doesn’t amount to anything here.
Arab slave traders were not engaged in bringing slaves across the Atlantic, nor did they “ship” any slaves across, whether themselves or through intermediaries. It’s possible that Spinoneone was thinking of the trans-Saharan slave trade to Arab lands, but that was a different slave trade.
Mar 15, 2009 - 3:44 pm 65. one of my own:63 Tomph . . . WAY above yours, knucklehead.
Mar 15, 2009 - 7:17 pm 66. one of my own:45. AThinkingPerson: . . . “I. . . he’s a pathetic waste of oxygen. . . I’ll fork out for a ticket back to Africa where you can live it up back in the motherland. American has no use for haters like you.”
I’m trying to teach you idiots something, now focus . . . athunker here illustrates the Right’s problem, and that is, you have no principles . . . “Go back to Africa you pathetic waste of oxygen. America has no sue for haters like you.” Do you see? Do you get it? You can’t expect to advance when you live in state of continual and mindless contradiction.
Sorry, better luck next time.
Mar 15, 2009 - 7:26 pm 67. Chuck Pelto:TO: James
RE: Soooo
….you’re proud of your ignorance, eh.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Mar 15, 2009 - 11:47 pm 68. James:[Stupid, adj., Ignorant and proud of it.]
Okay, Chuck, I think it’s time to show us your knowledge.
Are you questioning that Arab slave traders were involved in the transatlantic slave trade? Or something else?
Mar 16, 2009 - 5:01 am 69. Chuck Pelto:TO: James
RE: [OT] The Transatlantic Slave Trade
I’m questioning your questioning of Spinoneone on the terminology mentioned in my earlier post at item #60.
It’s really quite simple. But for some reason, you want to make it MUCH more complicated….and I’m also noticing a tendency for topic drift with you.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Mar 16, 2009 - 6:34 am 70. The Shadow:[Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius-and a lot of courage-to move in the opposite direction. -- Albert Einstein]
Delia – Hate seems to be the only way you can deal with the world. Of course that is standard fare here.
Mar 16, 2009 - 7:05 am 71. Chuck Pelto:Chuckie is probably a member of mensa. What a crew here. It runs the gamut from outright racist to simpletons.
TO: All
RE: The Shadow
Anyone else here get the impression that the [gutless] ‘Shadow’ is ‘projecting’?
Heck. Even is ‘url’ is worthless.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Mar 16, 2009 - 7:45 am 72. Robert Hurley:[Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated. -- George Bernard Shaw]
Chuckie – “Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of men, the Shadow knows” There is a lot of evil lurking here.
Mar 16, 2009 - 8:59 am 73. J. Rockford:Ronald Reagan was part of high society before he became President. For example, the Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra, was his personal friend. President Teleprompter is a wanna be celebrity. Along with being a leftist, unethical and a man with no experience or accomplishment. But this is no surprise. It was obvious a year ago during the primary to anyone who was interested in determining what kind of man might be the Democrat nominee. The real question is: will the U.S. be totally ruined before he — and the Democrats in Congress — can be voted out in four years, if that is even possible.
Mar 16, 2009 - 9:30 am 74. Ian Thorpe:Like the prototype unbermeritocrat Tony Blair, Obama talks about fairnes and redistribution but is himself facinated to the point of being mesmerised by wealth and power.
You can bet his plans will stir things up in the middle and lower strata of society while the super rich and the meritocratic elite who serve them do very very well.
Mar 16, 2009 - 11:07 am 75. The Historian:DUPLICITY: OBAMA IS THY NAME
Sorry Barack, you can’t have it both ways. That is not effective leadership.
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/03/duplicity-thy-name-is-obama.html
Mar 16, 2009 - 11:18 am 76. AThinkingPerson:one of my own… My you are a bit full of yourself aren’t you? I’d suggest putting that liberal energy to work hugging some trees or saving a few endangered albino crabs or something. Your lack of knowledge on anything of value here is evident in your baseless posts.
If you’d like people to learn from your posts…say something of value instead of the usual blowhard left-wing rubbish. Shouldn’t you swagger back over to the Huffington Post where they place irrelevant libs like you in high regard? You seem the type that would love to bask in the nothingness that is the every-dwindling liberal media. I might even suggest a rant or two at an ACORN rally! There I’m sure your talents of exaggeration and America-bashing would be put to good use!
By the way, you never said if you’d like to take me up on the offer of a ticket to another country where you’d feel more valued. I of course suggested Africa but in reality there are far more options for someone of your limited intellectual abilities. I await your next poetic drivel. I’m sure you’re just seething by now. Liberals have such short, limp fuses.
Mar 16, 2009 - 11:31 am 77. James:“It’s really quite simple. But for some reason, you want to make it MUCH more complicated….and I’m also noticing a tendency for topic drift with you.”
Please, Chuck. It is simple, and every one of my comments has been about the same issue, which wasn’t raised by me.
Spinoneone claimed that Arab slave traders had something to do with the ancestors of black Americans, and that’s just not true. Nor does the word choice matter; I used the word I did because his word choice, “shipped,” doesn’t even fit the slave trade, unless he meant it in the same sense as “brought over themselves.” No one in that trade shipped slaves via intermediaries.
A simple point, unless of course it isn’t correct, but I don’t hear anyone saying so.
Mar 16, 2009 - 1:27 pm 78. Delia:70. The Shadow:
Delia – Hate seems to be the only way you can deal with the world. Of course that is standard fare here.
Chuckie is probably a member of mensa. What a crew here. It runs the gamut from outright racist to simpletons.
~
Yep. You pegged me. I’m a raaaaaaacist. *eyeroll* -And, did you read ANY of my posts on this thread? HELLO? I don’t hate any of you libtards. I have compassion for your daft, addlepated, brain-washed mindsets but I hardly HATE any of you simply for your differing views. THAT is mental.
You do realize that Democrats have a history of racism?
http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/oped/owens/02/racism.html
Thanks for playing checks & balances with me.
Warm smiles,
Delia =0)
Mar 16, 2009 - 3:58 pm 79. Delia:P.S. I’m not afraid to put my ‘face’ behind my statements here:
http://newsbusters.org/bios/mother.html
I speak my mind and I may ruffle some lib-feathers but that’s not my problemmo. I yam what I yam. Nyuck!
Mar 16, 2009 - 4:49 pm 80. Chuck Pelto:TO: James
RE: [OT] Arab Slave Trade
I’ll indulge you….
Show me where the Arabs had NOTHING to do with the trans-atlantic slave trade. Especially in light of the fact that the Arabs were taking slaves in Congo, which is on the west coast of Africa? And, furthermore, as I understand it, the Arab slave traders stopped shipping their Congo slaves through the Sahara routes after the Europeans established a settlement in the vicinity of Congo.
So, despite your claim, it seems that there IS evidence that the Arabs were, at least in part, involved with the trans-atlantic slave trade. Maybe not a lot. But some.
Hope that helps.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Mar 16, 2009 - 5:14 pm 81. amf:[The Truth will out.....]
Yes we did! You must realize that it was your own people who enslaved and sold slaves. Now O is going to enslave all again. You will be no better off than before. Actually yes you will. You will have maybe $7 to $14 per pay check,that is if you have a job.
Mar 16, 2009 - 5:43 pm 82. Delia:80. Chuck,
More food for thought:
http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/slavetra.html
http://cghs.dadeschools.net/african-american/europe/slave_trade.htm
~
What blacks refuse to see is the rampant black-on-black crime. Black people still have a very ‘tribal’ ‘instinctuality’ [yes, Delia just made a new word]. Black people are STILL very tribal in many parts of Africa and kill each other on the daily on behalf of their tribal mentality and one can’t help wonder if the ‘black on black’ crime is unconscious tribalism that still runs deep in the veins of many black people.
-Anyway…just a ‘thought out loud’…I thunk it, wrote it and own it.
Mar 16, 2009 - 7:52 pm 83. The Shadow:I don’t know if you are a racist, but you seem to spew hate of anyone you disagree with
Mar 16, 2009 - 8:26 pm 84. Geofizz:It goes even further than what Pam describes here in her article. Do you folks see the extent to which us little people/taxpayers are slated to take it up the backside when it comes to the government’s dealing with Wall Street and financial institutions??? Here’s a few things that I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere in the media except within financial blogs:
1. Did you know that to insure our bank deposits, the FDIC is suppose to collect fees from the banks, and that between 1996 – 2006 NO FEES were collected?? We have Congress to thank for this. Apparently the FDIC had collected “enough,” so Congress decided it need not collect more. Needless to say, the current financial crisis has required that the FDIC deplete a good chunk of its Depositors Insurance Fund, which in comparison to the scale of the financial crisis is looking rather miniscule at present (it is now down from $36 billion or so to $19 bln).
2. It gets better… Senator Dodd has a Depositors Protection Act he’s working on, and apparently it’s a matter of not IF but WHEN it gets passed. Sounds like a good bill, right? One that addresses the problem described above? Nope. The FDIC, which use to be exclusively focused on simply insuring all of our bank deposits, has recently become a Lender of First Resort to bank holding companies. Since this program (Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program) got started in October 2008, FDIC has lent over $300 bln. Dodd’s bill is about increasing the amount of funds available to the FDIC so they can lend even more. Only bank holding companies benefit from Dodd’s bill, not our deposits. Yep, that’s more government-issued debt that is backed by us taxpayers. TLGP has done some good where bank liquidity is concerned; never mind the problem of debt though.
3. The one thing you don’t see mentioned much in the news is the extent to which wrong-doings and actual fraud has been committed within Wall Street. All you hear is that these wall street people ran the company into the ground and/or played a role in bringing about this financial crisis. But do you ever hear the word “FRAUD” mentioned with any of this? Check out
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/03/on-traders-behaving-badly-and-cognitive.html
And apparently the Treasury is as much asleep at the wheel as the SEC is when it comes to actively enforcing ANYTHING:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/03/wiliam-black-savages-treasurys-conduct.html
(in this article, William Black says that the treasury failed to “expose, and to the extent possible, remedy through restatements the massive accounting fraud that AIG was/is engaged in that triggers the bonuses.” — emphasis mine)
How many times have I read MBA-types asking in financial blogs “where’s the outrage?!?!”
4. Another bailout plan that is in the works is one dealing with the toxic assets. You remember all the coverage about the possibility of the government nationalizing banks? Well, an alternative to that is one where the taxplayer plays a much much more prominent role. It’s a “public private partnership” where the government lends money to private investors so that they’ll be incentivized to buy the toxic assets. You seeing a recurring theme here?? Once again, the government is lending money (i.e., issuing debt) which is backed by the taxpayers. The toxic assets on the balance sheets of many financial institutions are over-valued, so nobody wants to buy them. So the government lends:
“Depending on the different types of collateral, investors will get roughly $100 of lending [via Fed loans] for every $5 to $16 of cash they put up to invest.”
So it is hedge fund investors who do the investing; these are folks who want to see a high-yield return on their investments.
“If the Fed successfully reflates, hedgies get to pocket profits. If the Fed fails, the hedgies are only out the $5-$16 premium they paid for the option.”
And who coughs up the $100 that is lost if Fed fails?? Taxpayers. The hedge fund investor gets to “play high stakes poker with taxpayer money.”
Folks need to be hearing more of the details about what is going on with our economy. Yes, there is plenty of blame for Wall Street, and plenty of Wall Street people who need to be fired and/or jailed. But most of what is happening can be traced back to intervention by our government. They are taking a really bad recession and making it much more worse.
NOTE: I’m not a MBA financial-type; so if any of you out there are, please feel free to correct me if I’ve made any misstatements.
Mar 16, 2009 - 8:27 pm 85. James:“Show me where the Arabs had NOTHING to do with the trans-atlantic slave trade.”
Chuck, I don’t know how I’m supposed to “show” you that Arabs had nothing to do with the transatlantic slave trade. For instance, Hugh Thomas, in his definitive, 900-page work on the subject (”The Slave Trade”), doesn’t mention any Arab involvement in the trade at all (except in discussing the separate, trans-Saharan slave trade, of course).
“Especially in light of the fact that the Arabs were taking slaves in Congo, which is on the west coast of Africa?”
I can find no record of Arab slave traders operating in West Central Africa, in what was then the Lunda empire and is now the Congo, during the time of the transatlantic slave trade (roughly 1514-1866). The trans-Saharan slave trade famously operated in the Sahara, elsewhere in northern Africa, and in East Africa.
Perhaps you can point us to a source which indicates that Arab slave traders were operating as far south as this, and whether it was during the time of the transatlantic trade? (You seem to suggest that the Arab traders stopped their operations there at the start of the European trade.) And whether they were in any way involved in sending slaves to the Americas, rather than purchasing slaves for Muslim lands?
Now, I don’t want to detract from your claim that there was at least some Arab involvement in sending slaves across the Middle Passage. However, I think the more important issue here may be that we’re even debating whether Arab traders might possibly have ever had any connection to the transatlantic slave trade. Why is this even an issue? Why did Spinoneone even think it was worth mentioning Arabs in connection with a trade dominated by Americans and Europeans, and why did you think that made sense? Isn’t this merely an obvious attempt to deflect attention from those who were primarily responsible for what happened (Americans, Europeans, and Africans)?
Mar 17, 2009 - 5:25 am 86. Chuck Pelto:TO: Delia
RE: Get This….
“I don’t know if you are a racist, but you seem to spew hate of anyone you disagree with” — The Shallow
….sarcasm is now ‘hate speech’.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Mar 17, 2009 - 6:13 am 87. Chuck Pelto:[If you can't laugh at yourself, you're taking yourself entirely too seriously.]
TO: Geofizz
RE: Yeah
“Do you folks see the extent to which us little people/taxpayers are slated to take it up the backside when it comes to the government’s dealing with Wall Street and financial institutions???” — Geofizz
Check out my item # 22 here.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Mar 17, 2009 - 6:15 am 88. Delia:[If you're not paranoid, it's because you're not paying attention.]
84. Geofizz,
Excellent post. *shiver* Middle-America is getting the Marxist sucker punch. Ugh.
~
86. Chuck Pelto,
Yeah, Chuck… They can shovel it but they can’t take even a little ‘crumb’ of it back. Go figure?
I can laugh at myself for all of my imperfections fer sure. Me cast the first stone? No way, José. Opinions are just that…we all have ‘em and we [so far] still have the right to express ‘em.
Mar 17, 2009 - 11:58 am